Improvement in wrought-iron columns



part of this speciiication, in which- 'Lunwre HERMAN, or

ATENT FFICE.

DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

lv'lRGVEMENT IN WRUGHT-lRON COLUMNS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent Nc. 134,987, dated January 21; 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LUDWIG HERMAN, of Detroit, in the county of Wayne and State of Michigan, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Metallic Columns; and I do declare that the following is a true and accurate description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawing and to the letters of reference marked thereon and being a Figure I is an elevation of my improved column, showing one form of its construction; Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 are partial elevations, showing various modilications in the stays; Fig. 7 is a cross-section at .r .fr in Fig. l; Figs. 8 and 9 are half cross-sections of the figures above and below them, respectively.

Like letters refer to like parts in each ligure.

The nature of this invention relates to an improvement in the construction of metallic columns whereby the amount of metal employed shall not exceed the amount required to resist the pressure to which the columns shall be subjected, which columns can also be easily constructed or put together from bars of merchant iron or steel without bands, rings, or hoops on the exterior or interior, and without lling blocks or lines7 such as are usually employed in sectional columns. The invention consists in the radial arrangement of bars or plates in the column secured together in position, and against any tendency to buckle, by stays bolted or riveted between the members of the column, as more fully hereinafter set forth.

In the drawing, A represents iiat bars of merchant iron'standing on end on a baseplate, and disposed radially from the axis of the column, in which position they are secured together by the intermediate stays O, also of fiat bariron, which are riveted or bolted to and through the members A.

In constructing a column, I take four or more of the bars A, which may be iiat, square, round, oval, L, or T shape; but preferably iiat bars, the sum of whose united areas gives the area of metal required to resist the pressure to be sustained by the columns, and connect them by the stays, at intervals, on the same horizontal planes, as in Figs. l and 2,

vbar or plate iron shaped over a former 7 to the required conformation.

The stays in Fig. l are each made up of two members, somewhat in the form of a frustum of a pyramid riveted together through the apexes. Those shown in Fig. 6, are similar in design, but with their riveted seams disposed longitudinally between the webs of the column, in Fig. 2 the stay is formed of a quadrangular box; in Fig. 3 it is the same, only the opening is in a vertical plane 5 in Fig. et it is formed like an open channel-bar, in section, as seen in the lower half of Fig. 8 and in Fig. 5 the brace or stay is a continuous bar bent back and forth between the bars to which it is riveted at the points of contact.

I do not wish to be coniined to any particular form of stay, whether shown or not, as others constructed in different forms, but similarly applied, will serve my ends-i. c., to stiften the webs and prevent them from buckling.

By varying the number and sizes of the bars I can readily proportion the cross-section of the column to the weight to be sustained. The column may be straight or tapering from the base to the top, or tapered from the mid dle to the ends, as circumstances may require.

In the construction of this column-I do not require iianged or channeled bars, nor special shapes of rolled ironalways expensive, in cost, but use none but ordinary merchant bars, which can be worked into columns without loss or waste. Nor does the manufacture of the column require special machinery or tools except the formers for shaping the staysan item of no little consequence- 21s, for instance, in the erection of a bridge or pier at a distance from the contractors shops, which necessitates the purchase of material, freighting it to the shops, constructing the columns, shipping them to the place where they are to be erected, and paying two freights,

as is generally the case; while in my case I buy merchant iron on the spot or wherevercheaper, and construct my columns at or near of four or more radial bars, A, connected to the place where they are to stand.V gether at intervals by the stays C, substam I disclaim the invention of a strut composed tially as described and shown. of four angle-irons secured together by bolts, LUDWIG HERMAN. as such have been used heretofore but Witnesses:

What I do claim as my invention is EDWARD KAPITER, An improved iron or steel column7 composed CARL SCHMEMANN. 

